Gary Neville has made more Champions League appearances than any player in the competition's history and on his 77th outing Manchester United's stand-in skipper chose the perfect moment to break his goalscoring duck.

With his depleted team trailing to Christian Gimenez's first-half opener, Neville let fly with a left-footed volley eight minutes after the interval after Swiss side Basle failed to clear a bouncing ball in the box.

A deflection off Thimothee Atouba saw the ball nestle in the corner of the net, much to Neville's stunned surprise.

However, despite the eventual introduction of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Paul Scholes, United could not force a winner.

That left former Tottenham manager Christian Gross celebrating another moral victory over British opposition, even if Juventus' late win over Deportivo La Coruna in Turin will almost certainly send the Italians into the quarter-finals.

With Roy Keane and Juan Sebastian Veron absent through injury and Giggs, Beckham, Scholes and Ruud van Nistelrooy left on an illustrious substitutes' bench, it was left to Nicky Butt, Laurent Blanc and Diego Forlan to carry the fight.

To say they did not cover themselves in glory would be a considerable understatement. Debutant Darren Fletcher and fellow rookie Kieran Richardson were the most potent attacking weapons and even then it was pretty minimal.

Richardson looked dangerous running at defenders without quite managing to break into the penalty area, while Fletcher, who was refused a first start three years ago by the FA because he was still at school, spoiled his first touch with a series of wasted passes.

Basle's efforts were not spectacular but their solidity had helped them get past both Celtic and Liverpool earlier in the competition and just as Gross had promised, they threatened to extend their stay in the competition.

In Gimenez and Julio Rossi they had a speedy all-Argentinian strikeforce that threatened to turn Blanc's return from a three-month absence into a nightmare.

Rio Ferdinand's pace helped his team-mate out, even if the £30million defender was found wanting for the visitors' opener.

There had not looked to be any danger when Murat Yakin struck a speculative 30-yard effort but when it deflected into Rossi, he managed to smuggle the ball out wide where it was fired back into an unmarked Gimenez's path to fire Basle in front.

Basle proceeded to control the game, giving rise to the belief that United may find life extremely difficult later in the competition should they encounter an injury crisis.

The booking of Phil Neville for a rash challenge on Gimenez was unfortunate given two yellow cards still carry an automatic ban into the latter stages, leaving him in danger of missing the quarter-final if he picks up another against Deportivo next week.

All this was irrelevant in United's relentless pursuit of winning football matches, so Ferguson threw on Giggs for Richardson at the interval.

While there was no immediate spark from the Welshman, his presence was enough to put Basle on the back foot and United started to enjoy the dominance of possession with which they are usually associated.

What Old Trafford is not famous for however is Gary Neville goals. The England defender has scored just three times in his United career, never in European combat.

So, when he let fly with volley from his weaker left foot, he could hardly have expected to leave Zuberbuhler standing, even if the goal did come courtesy of a massive deflection off Atouba.

Neville might have had a second had Zuberbuhler not got in the way of his cleaner right-footed effort from a similar position midway through the second half, after both Beckham and Scholes had been introduced.

Neville also met with failure in his enthusiastic attempts to clock up a second competition booking, which would rule him out of next week's trip to Spain but leave him free for the quarter-finals.

Privately, United are already planning for the last eight and if tonight's team was weak, the one which travels to Spain next Tuesday could be almost unrecognisable.

Teams

Man Utd: Carroll, Gary Neville, Blanc (Scholes 73), Ferdinand, O'Shea, Fletcher (Beckham 73), Phil Neville, Butt, Richardson (Giggs 45), Solskjaer, Forlan.

Subs Not Used: Ricardo, van Nistelrooy, Pugh, Webber.

Booked: Phil Neville.

Goals: Gary Neville 53.

Basle: Zuberbuhler, Atouba, Murat Yakin, Zwyssig, Haas, Chipperfield, Cantaluppi, Barberis, Hakan Yakin, Gimenez (Tum 77), Juilio Rossi (Huggel 62).

Subs Not Used: Rapo, Quennoz, Varela, Duruz, Degen.

Booked: Cantaluppi.

Goals: Gimenez 14.

Att: 66,870

Ref: Claus Bo-Larsen (Denmark).